In fact, even though there is VAT (~17-25) around Europe, I believe this is so called "Apple exchange rate". Introduced by Apple when they found out their stuff would be insanly cheap here, they set 1 EUR = 1 USD.

It has been later adopted by Valve's Steam for no obvious reason except making more money.Reply

Yeah, it's £370 ($609.50) in the UK and that's at the cheapest dodgy online store, it's at least another £10 from any reputable place. It's 'only' £399 for an ipad 2, but I thought this Asus was meant to be a much cheaper alternative rather than competition at the same price point.Reply

It is a poor man's iPad but ironically costs far more...which is the poblem with all Honeycomb tablets thus far. I voted with my money and just bought an iPad2 having tried out the Xoom and the Transformer and don't regret my decision one bit. The difference in smoothness is in order of magnitudes. Reply

I believe that there are a few manufacturers that have sampled Tegra 3 since the end of february and in line to deliver new products this year with the new chip. Tegra 2 is already outdated since it took so long for manufacturers to adopt it, with Kal-El bringing 5x the performance I don't doubt we'll see it at Computex in different configurations.Reply

I still confused why these things are rolling out with Android OS and not Chrome OS. It just doesn't make any marketing sense. At some point either Chrome OS is going to evaporate (which its such a big hit now I wouldn't be surprised) or the two are going to collide.

The majority of the john and Joan Public don't even know that Chrome OS exists or/and are just confused because it has the same name as the browser.

They should have called it "Chrome Extreme", "CS-winning" or "Co za asy".Reply

Just like Android 1.0, I'd say the tablet version needs a few revisions before I'd bother recommending it to someone else. And the tearing in that scrolling performance is horrendous.

Honestly, if Google just spent one major revision only improving performance of the current system (scrolling, graphical animations, fixing bugs, streamlining UI), i think that'd be perfect. It's the persistent problems that I just know Google engineers must be aware of that need to be fixed sooner rather than later.Reply

You say they need a few revisions, but iOS has had a couple revisions and it still does the same type of thing... it just manifests itself differently (as Anand points out). So it's disingenuous to act like Google engineers are just incompetent or rushing the product.Reply

No iOS is generally smooth as. All google Android handsets and Tablets i've used have suffered from the weird scrolling since I started using them. This lack of smoothness is jarring coming from an iOS device and is the most prominent reason why I would never switch until it's fixed - It just feels like they don't care about detail or user experience as it stands or they are trying to cater to types that don't notice the difference. Reply

You will be even more surprise if you have to send your tablet back to Asus for repair. I did. The second day the sound was gone on the brand new tablet. Called the customer service and they identified the problem with a faulty sound card. Brand new under warranty, but THEY REFUSED TO PAY FOR SHIPPING. I had to shell out $30 just to ship it to them when it is all their fault.

I should have bought an Acer A500 instead. If you consider attaching a USB keyboard instead of the Asus dock, and the hidden cost of repair shipping, I'd save myself almost $200.Reply

3.1 running great on my asus transformer. youtube app plays 720p smooth as heck now. also it's just generally faster and the scroll bar in the browser is awesome, no lag at all scrolling top to bottom on engadget.com is worth the tearing to meReply

The Acer is built even worse than the Asus! I think you were just unlucky unfortunately, but Asus quality control has annoyed me too in the past with DOA motherboards and graphic cards and naturally, the support is about as useful as a chocolate teapot. Reply

Anand, I am seriously hoping that there is some details on the upcoming Asus Slider at computex. I read some rumours about Asus changing the Tegra 2 for the new Atom, which would make sense, especially if they put a Win 7 device out.I wonder 1. how that will effect battery life VS the transformer device, and 2. how the GPU will work out in an atom based slider VS the Tegra 2 in the transformer.Reply

I'm looking forward to the Slider too. I cant help but to wonder if this form factor is what intel needs to jump into the tablet market, but It doesn't seem like android is the os solution. Maybe we'll see some iteration of mameo on these devices in the future.Reply

I been wanting a tablet for a year now but so far haven't bothered. I don't want an Apple product. The iPad2 is nice but I'm so tired of Apple this and Apple that. I want something different. The Xoom was the first thing that had me tempted to buy but I have held off to see what else was out there. I'm glad now I did.

The ASUS Transformer has me very tempted. The new enhancements makes it even more enticing. Debating to whether hold off more and see what the Summer/Fall brings. I'm hoping by late Fall there will be better Android tablets. The ASUS Transformer is very tempting though.Reply

From hardware to software the iPad 2 won't be touched by anyone this year. Even the upcoming Samsung Galaxy Tab II will just be another iClone running Honeyblow.

Just look at the hardware performance differences, iPad 2 is the best gaming platform no wonder it has Nintendo 3DS beat easily this year.

Like Steve says all other tablets will be vaporware. Even the the Asus transformer will not be wanted after 2-3 month when another tablet out does it and this vicious cycle of competition helps Apple.Reply

"From hardware to software the iPad 2 won't be touched by anyone this year."

Kal-El is coming out in a shipping tablet later this year and will show a 5x graphics improvement over Tegra 2. In addition, it will have 4 Cortex-A9 vs 2 Cortex-A9. All of a sudden that 2x perform increase seen by the iPad 2 over Tegra based Android system evaporates and the roles are reversed. There will certainly be hardware later this year that will outperform iPad 2. Software is up for debate based on usage scenarios.

"Just look at the hardware performance differences, iPad 2 is the best gaming platform no wonder it has Nintendo 3DS beat easily this year."

If you truly need to compare a handheld to a tablet in performance, I could just as easily compare a 360 or PS3 against an iPad and show how it wipes the floor with it. We are also talking about a $250 vs a $500 device regardless of being different form factors.

If you are talking about unit sales, the Nintendo 3DS actually is nothing to sneeze at, after 1 month on the market in Japan and 1 week on the market elsewhere, it sold 3.5 million units. Estimates of iPad 2 sales in the first month of availability were 2.4-2.6 million units which are significantly lower than 3DS.

"Like Steve says all other tablets will be vaporware. Even the the Asus transformer will not be wanted after 2-3 month when another tablet out does it and this vicious cycle of competition helps Apple."

You don't have a clue what vaporware actually means? Vaporware is where a product doesn't get released. I don't know how you support your statement that all other tablets are vaporware by stating that another tablet gets released that is better than a previous one. In fact, it directly contradicts your statement by implying that there is a steady stream of released (i.e. not vaporware) tablets.

As far as continual improvement in the competitor's offering helping Apple, I am afraid that is wishful thinking. While releasing a better product does make other Android tablets less competitive than they once were, it also changes the competitive landscape when comparing iPad to Android devices more favorably towards Android than it was before. For instance, when the Quad Core Tegra 3 tablet gets released half way through a iPad refresh, the ARM SoC GPU performance crown will have been stolen from Apple. Reply

You do realise that 5X performance increases is a purely marketing figure (like the 9x increase Apple claims for the ipad2 compared to ipad). I'll wait to see actual benchmarks before giving the crown to Tegra3.Reply

I think I can see what he was getting at actually. For build quality and coherence of the platform environment, nothing is likely to touch the iPad2 until the next revision next March/April. There is an inherent problem with the constant power race and replacing chipsets/GPU's etc beyond the impressive benchmark numbers, in that it is unlikely that Apps will make proper use of the increase in power during the useful life of the tablet apart from things made by Google and a handful of others. If they were to do so, then they would be virtually unusable on the earlier hardware revisions. I can now see why Android marketplace makes hardly any revenue for it's developers compared to the AppStore and the same issue is now happening on the tablet side as the phone side! They need a common spec to develop for not a constantly changing one. At the end of the day, most people don't just sit at home running benchmarks on their tablets. Is there any software as well made or optimised as Garageband for Android?

Instead of saying they are vapourware, a better saying would be that they would be 'gone in a flash'. Having been in the market for a Honeycomb tablet I initially focussed on the Xoom, then got put off by reviews and the high price, then the Iconia and was put off by reviews and then the Asus, but found it ludicrous that they could launch it without a working camera. Across all of them i found it hard to swallow the high price compared to the cheap-feeling build quality. I finally cracked and bought an iPad2 and don't regret my decision because you actually buy peace of mind that what you bought will not be instantly obsolete. His point about the 3DS is not well made though. Reply

I think this pad is more useful than iPad beacause everything for iPad are not free. IPAD is expensive and there is not even flashpalyer for it! Jobs was crazy and he wanted money only.I say no to iPad.

I have a android pad with Android OS 2.2 install. It's very useful. Most of usb devices can be supported!

good tablet for its price but had to return my eee transformer because of the screen flashing with horizontal lines and camera not working right. probably one of those defective ones but overall not a bad buy. also, found out that u cnt use video on skype and on yahoo messenger. love that it is adobe supported! resolution is awesome! love most of its features. dual cam. and apps! Reply

I bought mini speakers from Ceramic Glaze for my asus transformer tft101. According to the manual, the audio should automatically switch from the internal speakers to external when you plug it in. Mine do not. I tried to chat asus for help, and they were "momentarily," unavailable all night long. And every other time ive tried that route. I called their customer service, and long story short, im still trying to simmer down from the virtual abuse i recieved. After an hour of waiting for an "unavailable" supervisor, i hung up. I have no idea what to do. Can anyone help???Reply